


Departure

by CrossedBeams



Category: The Fall (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-20
Updated: 2016-10-20
Packaged: 2018-08-23 14:33:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8331391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrossedBeams/pseuds/CrossedBeams
Summary: I understand why Reed wasn't able to come back (Archie's schedule) but it bugs me a little that her absence is never explained at all. Here's my version of goodbye :( .





	

Stella has seen it happen before, but it doesn’t make it any easier. Her police training prepared her to defuse violence, tolerate abuse, to stay strong in the face of adversity, but they don’t teach you how to say goodbye. How to stop it from hurting.

Last time she sat across from Reed the air was alive with potential. There were margaritas and soft lips and the twinkling promise of forbidden fruit, ripe for the plucking. There was laughter, chemistry… sex. Maybe it hadn’t been the right time but Stella couldn’t help feeling as she’d watched Reed walk away, holding up “Croydon” as her get out of jail free card, that another time, another place they might find their way past go. And that it might be electric.

There is nothing electric about this conversation. There is only fear.

Reed sits as close on the plastic waiting room sofa as she did in the bar that night, but her eyes are bright with worry and the name on her lips is not Stella’s. It is Rose’s, then her husband’s. Her children’s.

‘You really think he might come after me?’ The professional in her stands firm but the mother is right behind, ready to run or fight, to do what it takes. Stella shakes her head, ever so slightly, clenching her jaw to control the words that must march out in orderly, police approved lines and not in a flurry of protective instinct,

‘We just don’t know. We think it’s unlikely, but he targeted Rose before and if he knows you were our link to her…’

‘Then I fit his victim profile?’ Reed’s voice is almost inaudible.

‘Closely enough that the police won’t - _I won’t_  - risk leaving you and your family open until we have Spector back under surveillance or in custody. He’s never been more dangerous. He has nothing to lose. You do.’ Stella tries not to think about what Reed’s leaving will mean for her. Spector’s threat looms ever larger and now, because of him, she will lose the closest thing she has to a friend in this wind-battered city. She knows though that her loss is beside the point. Duty before desire. It won’t be the first time her career has taken someone from her.

‘I can’t believe you, Stella, of _all_ people, are asking me to go back to Croydon!’ Reed’s attempt at humour cracks round the edges and Stella squeezes her eyes closed and grimaces. There’s a horrid irony to this whole encounter. She breathes carefully in the calming darkness and then she feels Reed take her hand. It’s tentative at first and then bolder, weaving their fingers together into something strong. Something grounded. But Stella can’t anchor someone to danger.

‘It’s only for a few days Reed, I just need to know that you’re safe. That **you’re okay. I promise**  as soon as we have him you can come back and it will be as though nothing ever happened,’ Stella says. Her thoughts run on, “as if I never brought a madman into your life, back into the life of your friend, endangering everyone you care about for the furtherment of my case.”

The hiss of tyres on the road outside the waiting announces the arrival of the squad car, waiting to take Reed home, collect her nearest and dearest and transport them to the airport and to safety.

There are 34 muscles in the human hand and it takes every fibre of Stella’s strength to release each one, untangling the lock of their fingers until they sit separate in the sterile room. For a moment, neither of them moves but then there are heavy footsteps and there is no time for a proper goodbye, whatever that might look like.

Instead Stella stands poker straight in the doorway, a cordial, formal farewell ringing empty past her teeth and watches as Reed vanishes into the cold Belfast air.

Alone in the room she crumples back onto the seat. Pinching hard at the bridge of her nose to stave of the threat of tears she tries to reclaim the composure she will need to go out and address the taskforce. This is why she holds herself apart from others, guards herself so fiercely. It is much harder to break someone who holds all their own pieces. Stella made an exception for Reed, she let her in. And she wont do that again. The second hand of her watch marks off the last few seconds she can allow herself to grieve and as it passes twelve Stella takes a deep breath and stands.

No more distractions. It’s just her against Spector now and she intends to be the one left standing.


End file.
